Boots has finally admitted that it would be happy to "offload" Halfords. Boots originally payed £900m for the Ward White group 13 years ago: this included the Payless DIY stores, High Street wallpaper... [more]

Lexis Public Relations, the London-based PR company, has undergone a management buy-out for about £5m... [more]

Anite has acquired Micro Surveys Property Systems of Kingston-upon-Thames for up to £8m, in order to provide mobile working applications to the public sector... [more]

Glow Communications is to acquire the customer base of Future Integrated Telephony out of administration for up to £0.5m... [more]

WPP is to acquire Irish Marketing Surveys, which has 130 staff in Dublin and Belfast, in order to expand its Millward Brown communications research business... [more]

McLeod Russel has acquired two Danish air filter companies -Industrifilter and Synsafe Danmark - for up to £0.5m... [more]

Greene King has acquired Dalgety Taverns, the Fife-based chain of eight pubs, for undisclosed terms, and will convert the sites into the Hungry Horse format... [more]

Brooke Industrial's receivers have sold the Brooke Cutting Tools business to a management buy-out, saving 90 jobs in Hellaby, Yorkshire... [more]

Wolseley is to acquire Clayton Acquisition, the US distributor of storm-drainage materials, for £77m, in order to gain a foothold in the Florida market... [more]

Lloyds TSB is to buy two contract fleet hire businesses, which lease 73,000 cars to large companies, from Abbey National for £46m... [more]

RPS Group has acquired Indepth Surveys of Bristol for up to £3m and JR Stansfield & Associates of Warrington for £0.5m, in order to expand its water services and risk management divisions... [more]

Lex Service has sold its Lex Autocentres network of 96 vehicle servicing sites to Nationwide Autocentres for £4m... [more]

Frederick Cooper is to sell its Cooper Coil Coating subsidiary in the US to a newly-registered Florida-based company for £2.1m... [more]

Mean Fiddler is to acquire Finlaw 279, the operator of dance clubs in Nottingham, Glasgow and Coatbridge, for £2m... [more]

United Engineering Forgings has sold its Kidderminster-based automotive connecting rods business out of administration to Smethwick Drop Forge, saving 70 jobs... [more]

Mitchells Practical Campers of Wakefield has been acquired by CCCoutdoors of Sheffield, creating a combined camping business with turnover of £6m and about 50 staff... [more]

Tote has acquired the Manny Bernstein chain of 30 betting shops in the Midlands and North East, taking its chain to almost 400... [more]

John Laing has sold its property development business to a joint venture of Kier Group and Bank of Scotland for £40m, as part of a £120m disposal programme to reduce debt... [more]

Royal & Sun Alliance has extended the deadline for submission of final bids for its investment management arm due to a lack of formal offers. Royal & Sun Alliance is also trying to get rid of its life... [more]

Bidders for National Car Parks have little time left to make their last offers for the group, expected to fetch more than £1bn. Earlier this year there were more than 10 bidders in the first round of ... [more]